Tales From The Dragons' Den
by Kaen Okami
Summary: "This world can be seen from many points of view. Everyone has their own stories to tell." Oneshots set in the Once And Future King universe. Updates will be irregular.
1. Communication

**A/N - I don't know where it came into my head to give Azula a therapy wolf but I like it and I'm running with it. You should probably read chapter 6 of Once And Future King before reading this.**

**~0~**

_"A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself."_

- Josh Billings

~0~

I am the leader of the tigerwolf pack, and as leader, my duties are to care for and protect my packmates. There are many other smaller things I have to take care of, but they all fall under those two general categories.

So when, during my morning patrol of our territory borders (one of said smaller things), I catch a familiar scent carrying down to an area most humans and no tigerwolves normally go, and a feeling in my gut tells me that something is amiss, naturally I must go and investigate.

Taking a few steps back, I make a running leap over the towering construction of thick interlocking sticks the humans made. It's a difficult jump, but I am large enough (the only tigerwolf large enough) to make it. Initially, the odd setup puzzled me, but I suppose since humans cannot mark any territory by scent, this is necessary for them to do. It's no inconvenience to me, so I don't complain. I land on my paws, hitting the hard earth running. I have no worries about being caught. The sky's many colors are pale and light, but the sun is only barely over the horizon: normally too early for any human to be around our territory. Besides, even if one saw me, it isn't as if I will allow anyone but my human partner to handle me. I wouldn't like it at all if someone else tried, and she wouldn't like that either, and her pack is, if not loyal enough, then smart enough not to displease her that way.

I follow the scent trail through the thick forest, feeling it get fresher and stronger with each stride, until the sharp odor of salt mingling with it hits my nose and I realize I am about to come out and reach the bluffs near the island's coast. This is where my human partner and her young pup often come together, jumping around, attacking the air, bringing their blue and orange fire out of nowhere and throwing it all over the place. I don't see the point of any of this at all, but they seem to enjoy it.

And speaking of my human...

It's her scent I've been tracking, her lovely scent that is half smoke and half spice, and as it reaches its strongest point, I see her huddling under a small overhang where the sand meets the grass and earth. She's curled up tightly into herself, hugging her knees to her chest and hiding her face in them. Her shoulders are shaking, and I can hear her breath hitching from here. Unfortunately, it's familiar enough that I can tell what it means - my poor human is sad again.

A whimper escapes my throat. I detest seeing her this way. My human is strong and confident, the leader of her own pack. She is the only one of the human pack I, as a leader as well, will deign to listen to or respect. When I take her on my back into battle against their rival packs, we are unstoppable together. It makes my stomach lurch to see her so upset, and without another thought I sprint out of the forest and across the grass to her.

She hears the scrape of my claws on the sandy ground and lifts her head to look at me. There's water coming from her eyes and blotches of red on her face; I know by now that that too means something is hurting her. I wish I could understand all the sounds humans make to communicate, so she could just tell me what saddens her so often and I could go and make it stop for good. Then my human would be happy, like her pup. I never see _him _sad, not the way his mother is.

"Ikari," she says hoarsely when I reach her side. I know that noise, at least. That means me. _Yes, my human, I am here now, _I want to assure her_._ Having no other way to get across my intentions, I lean forward and begin to gently lick at her cheeks. They taste of salt, like ocean water.

Snapping something irritable-sounding that has "Ikari" in it, she jerks back, pushing my head away. I take a small step back, letting out a soft whine at the rejection. I have been through this before, and I know by now that my human is complicated. Whether she wants me here or not, at first she always pushes me away and (I'm assuming) insists that I leave her alone. I don't want to make anything worse, but I decide to press some more. Just a little bit, though, and if she reacts louder or more forcefully I'll go right away and return later to check on her. I must only go as far as it takes to know whether she needs the comforts of contact and companionship or of solitude at the moment.

I move closer than before, right up next to her, nosing at her face and neck again with little licks here and there. It's the only place my long tongue can reach, with her in that black and gold shell thing she seems to like so much. I don't even know if this is doing her any good, but I am completely in the dark as to how humans console each other. As such, this is the best I can hope to do.

However, this seems to be working.

Little by little, of course. Her body is still tense and her breath still trembles, but this time she lets me show her my affection. She murmurs something in the tone that's a familiar odd mix of fondness and exasperation, and shakily reaches up to put one arm over my shoulders and the other around my torso. Pulling me closer, she holds me tightly to her chest, like a much larger version of her pup and my own.

"Stay," she mutters, another human noise I know. I feel my tail start waving back and forth at the sound of it: that means she wants me here with her. "Stay."

Now that I know we will be here for a while, I decide to shift into a more comfortable position for both of us. Without pulling my head and chest out of her arms, I slowly lower myself down to the ground. Lying on the short spring grass, I press my body as close to hers as I can and rest my head in her lap. I feel her small, slender form shaking as her hold on me tightens and she buries her face in my thick chestnut fur. It becomes damper by the second, and a sympathetic whimper escapes me. The sound of her cries make my heart twist, but this is what she needs right now, and it is my job as my human's friend and partner to help her. So I lie still, right here, so she can let this all out.

Little as I know about human preferences and the reasons behind them, I am by now certain that hugging a soft, preferably large object will bring comfort to most of them. I haven't yet deciphered why exactly, though I suspect that it is my thick masses of soft fur that soothe my human. Even when nothing is wrong (nothing that I can pick up on, anyway), every time she comes to see me she'll stroke my head and back and sometimes rub my chest. Now that's something we can both get behind, it feels quite nice for all involved...

A sudden loud sob makes me jump, and I feel my human convulsing with the force of it and the ones that follow. It's almost a reflexive motion by now to press my body closer to her, to move my head up to her face, to try and calm her with gentle nudges and tiny licks. Though she's still upset, I can feel that, her body is gradually relaxing as she vents her emotions. After a couple minutes, she pulls back for a moment to look me in the face. Her eyes are still red and her face still wet, but the corners of her mouth are curved up just a little. From any other creature, this would be a sign of aggression, especially if visible teeth were involved. But in humans (the odd animals that they are), it is meant to send the complete opposite message. It is an expression of friendliness and contentment. The next sounds she makes are the same, the ones I love to hear the most: "Good boy. Good boy, Ikari."

_Happiness. She's happy again. _I thump my tail against the ground. _Success. _

**~0~**


	2. Good Night, Demon Slayer

~0~

_"I won't tell you there's nothing beneath your bed_

_I won't tell you that it's all in your head_

_This world of ours is not as it seems_

_The monsters are real but not in your dreams._

_- Goodnight, Demon Slayer, _Voltaire

~0~

Damn it, this was not something she should have to deal with.

"Aziru, I don't want to have to tell you again. _Go to sleep."_

Four-year-old Aziru looks up at her from under the covers with the first hint of tears in his big gold eyes. "But, Mama, I can't!" he whimpers, still refusing to lie down.

Azula closes her eyes and takes a deep, deliberate breath. Fleetingly, she entertains the thought of storming out in frustration and leaving it to someone else to deal with the child, but she waves it away almost as soon as it had. She doesn't really want to frighten Aziru like that (he wouldn't understand why his mother was angry, anyway), and she is perfectly capable of handling this, annoying as it is. It would just require a bit more effort and more out-of-the-box thinking than usual. She'd quickly discovered that children did not operate on normal human logic, and being a primarily logical individual, contending with her young son put her far out of her element. As such, advice from Hashira - a fairly good example as far as parenting went, if little Mikuru's constant cheerfulness was any indication - was invaluable to her. And one thing the general had said was something along the lines of, _If he's upset and you don't understand why, try not to get angry; find out what's bothering him._

"All right, Aziru," she says, making an effort to keep her voice level. "Why can't you go to sleep?"

"There's monsters hiding in my closet! They'll come out if I try to sleep!"

_For Agni's sake, that's all it is? _Azula bites back an irritated huff. _Ridiculous. _Her first impulse is to say as much to Aziru, but that would only make things worse, wouldn't it? No, she'll have to take a different route than usual tonight. What was it Hashira had said, when she'd been talking about Mikuru being convinced that one of the officers was planning to sacrifice her tigerwolf pup to the spirits? _A child's fears are real to them. Don't dismiss them as foolish. _As far as she could remember, she had never been afraid of such things. But she had learned early on that the truly frightening things came not from imagination, but from reality. And coming to that, dismissing her child and leaving him alone with his fears sounded unsettlingly similar to something Ozai would have done, and Ursa would never have paid her enough attention to comfort her if she were afraid. And she'd be damned if she repeated the failures of her own pathetic parents.

So Azula puts a gentle smile on her face, and goes to sit beside Aziru on the bed. "Monsters, hm?" she says softly, putting a hand on his small shoulder and hoping she's doing this correctly. "Can you...tell me what they look like?"

"You can't really see them," Aziru tells her earnestly. "They only come out in the dark. But they're bigger than Ikari with big white eyes and teeth that go down past their face. They're really cold and if they touch you you freeze and die." He pauses, running over the words in his head again. "Not _you _you, though. They don't come out when you're here, or when the candle's going."

"Is that so?"

"Mm-hm. I only see them when I'm alone. I don't know why. Uh...I don't think they like you very much."

"It sounds that way," she agrees. She feels monumentally stupid treating this as if it were a legitimate problem, but Aziru is dead serious about it, so she supposes that there's no other choice. Fortunately, she thinks she knows how she can end it, for good if she's lucky enough. And she can introduce her son to their philosophy on fear while she's at it. "You know," she begins, "now that you bring it up, I think I can remember having a problem like this when I was younger."

It's a blatant lie, but Aziru, none the wiser, believes every word, and looks up at her with interest. "Really?"

"Oh, yes. And I know why your monsters won't come out when I'm around. I think they're scared of me."

Aziru tilts his head curiously. This hasn't occurred to him before. "They're scared of you?"

_Yes, that's what I just said. _"Of course. They know who I am. They know how strong I am, and they know that I'm the one who protects you. If they tried to get to you when I was around - "

"You'd burn them all up!" Aziru exclaims, pumping his fist.

All right, he's made her smile genuinely, she'll give him that. "That's right. That's why they fear me, even though they're the big and frightening monsters. In fact..." She leaned closer to Aziru, lowering her voice as if sharing a secret. "Maybe they think _I'm _the most frightening monster of them all."

Her son looks at her with a puzzled expression for just a second before his face splits into a smile. "That's silly!" he laughs. "You're not a monster, you're my mama! Why would they think that?"

"Well, they don't seem to be the brightest of creatures," Azula says airily, trying to ignore how her heart had jumped at Aziru's near-immediate dismissal of the idea. "Really, they're not much of a threat, if you think about it for a minute. I could get rid of them easily if I wanted to."I wanted to."

"So can you do it right now?" Aziru asks.

She pretends to consider it. "I _could _do that. But, I don't think I will."

"What? Why not?"

"Because these are _your _monsters, and it's your job to face them. Ah, ah, ah," she cuts off his protest, putting a finger to his lips. "Don't worry. I'll tell you what you need to do, and all that'll be left is for you to follow my instructions. Understand?" Aziru doesn't look all that sure about this plan, but nods anyway. "Good. Now, like I said, there's no confusion as to who I am, but your monsters don't seem to know exactly who you are. So what you need to do is let them know just who they're trying to intimidate. You are my son, and the crown prince. You're stronger than they are, just like me."

"I am?" She nods, and he considers it with interest. "All I have to do is tell them that, and they'll go away?"

"Exactly. They'll never bother you again," she says, intending that to be the last thing she says on the matter. She stands up to go, only to be stopped by a tug on her sleeve. She turns to see Aziru clutching her robe and looking up at her with eyes that were again wide and nervous.

"Wait! Don't leave! Uh...I...I'll talk to them tomorrow," he says shakily. "Can...Can you stay here tonight? Just until I'm asleep."

Azula is silent for a moment, thinking it over. She'd thought her job was finished here, but apparently not. She wasn't entirely sure that she wasn't doing things completely wrong anyway, despite how smoothly this whole thing seemed to be going. Emotional closeness had never been her strong point after all...But still, this is what Aziru wants (and seems to need, even, from the pleading look on his face) from her, so if she doesn't stick around at least for a little while she'll probably pay for it later. And, though she is loath to admit it, her son can give quite effective puppy eyes when he wants to. She'll have to teach him to consciously utilize that at some point. All in all, she doesn't think she would leave her child alone here in the dark, even if she wanted to. _Damn maternal instincts. _

"All right then. Just this once, then it's all on you," she tells him, settling back down on the bed. "Deal?"

"Deal," Aziru agrees happily, and without a second's hesitation he snuggles up to her (either ignoring or not feeling her flinch slightly) and pulls his blanket over himself. He closes his eyes, perfectly content using his mother's stomach as a pillow, and his breathing grows slow and heavy with sleep within a minute. _Lucky him, _Azula thinks, his words running through her head again.

Aziru is still just a child, still young enough to be innocent. He had never been really afraid of her, not like anyone she could remember. Since he was old enough to show expression, there had only been love and admiration in his eyes when he looked at her, completely unaware of the cruelty she was capable of and the demons that haunted her day in and day out. Perfectly innocent. And although she has no desire to destroy that innocence - Agni knew Ozai had wasted no time in crushing hers - she knows that, sooner or later, Aziru will find out all of that, when he's grown older and started to lose his childish naivete. She has to wonder: what will he think of her then? Will fear mix in with the love she's come to cling to? Would he ever _stop _loving her? Azula hopes that it won't come to that, prays to every spirit that her son won't be like everyone else in her life. Right now, it doesn't seem at all likely. But still, she won't be very surprised if it does end up happening.

_You're not a monster, you're my mama!_

"Well," she whispers, caressing her son's sleeping face. "Who says the same thing can't be both?"

~0~

The next night, when she walks past Aziru's room, she can hear him behind the door, snarling as threateningly as a four-year-old can at whatever he imagined hid behind his closet door, telling them how he was the prince of the Fire Nation and he was stronger and scarier than any of them, and he'd burn them to ash if they tried to come near him again, and such. She has to suppress her laughter; she doesn't want him to hear, but she's glad he's kept his word and done just what she told him to do.

When she checks on him a few hours later, he's sleeping soundly again, with a small smile on his face. So proud of himself - in his young mind, it's a big thing he's done. She leaves with a smile of her own, thinking of the day that he will be fearlessly taking out real enemies, older and stronger and following her orders still. She'll take these last couple of nights as a good sign. Her son will need bravery to fulfill the duties she has given him.

**~0~**

**A/N - Shameless fluff, I know. But the idea was cute and it wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it, especially after hearing the song from the opening quote. It's basically about a kid being scared of monsters under the bed, and their parent being like, "Monsters? The hell with them, you're too badass for them to hurt you. You can just kill all of them!" I thought that would **_**definitely **_**be the kind of response Azula would have in that situation.**

**I just realized that this is the first time I've written Azula and Aziru's relationship from her perspective instead of his. I hope she isn't too OOC.**

**~0~**


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